Tsai Ing-wen voted most trustworthy politician: survey

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

Fri, Apr 12, 2013 - Page 1

An opinion poll published yesterday showed that former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are seen as politicians most capable of fighting corruption, with each winning support from more than 40 percent of respondents.

Tsai was named as the most trustworthy politician among a selection of 10 politicians when it comes to tackling corruption, with a support rate of 46.5 percent in the survey conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR). Chu was second with 41.1 percent.

All four DPP politicians on the list were in the top five. DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) came in third with 38.5 percent, ahead of Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) 37.2 percent and Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai’s (賴清德) 34.3 percent.

The results showed widespread public disappointment with the government’s efforts to fight graft, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), plagued by a series of government corruption cases, endured embarrassing results.

With regards to political parties, 30.1 percent said both the KMT and the DPP were incapable of monitoring potential corruption when in power, with 26.2 percent saying the DPP was better and 18.9 percent voting for the KMT. Just 6.2 percent supported both parties’ efforts, while 18.6 percent were unsure.

The survey also found that people’s confidence in the judicial system has dramatically waned since 2006, with 69.2 percent saying they did not believe the judicial system could uphold fairness and justice.

That was up from 48.5 percent who expressed their lack of confidence in the judiciary in 2006, 47.2 percent in 2009 and 63.3 percent in July last year, TISR said.

Only 18.6 percent believed that justice and fairness would be upheld, a far cry from the 40.4 percent in 2006 and 39.1 percent in 2009.

The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, had 1,005 valid samples and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.